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BODY HEAT Directed and Written by Lawrence Kasdan...
...enormous logjam of talented actors out there," Kasdan says, "and precious few of them have good parts to chew on." Body Heat is full of meaty characters and pungent performances-Ted Danson as a tap-dancing prosecutor, J.A. Preston as a dogged detective, and especially Mickey Rourke as a savvy young ex-con who looks and acts as if he could be Ned's sleazier twin brother. Kathleen Turner's Matty mixes come-hither looks with a sultry, baritone voice. This is a creature of fire and ice, with no intermediate shadings of warmth or aloofness. Thanks largely...
...plot and tone to James M. Cain's Double Indemnity: a man more ordinary than he thinks he is meets a newly rich femme fatale; sparks fly, plots hatch, a husband dies, insurance claims are debated, friendships fray, the lovers quarrel and part explosively. And though Lawrence Kasdan's film is set in today's South Florida, its characters move through an atmosphere that suggests the confluences of decor and demeanor in a 1940s film noir...
...scenes in Body Heat are humid and tumid enough, but they are there to serve the symmetry of Kasdan's visual and narrative design. "Ned is caught in limbo, in a dream," Kasdan, 32, told TIME. "I wanted this film to have the intricate structure of a dream, the density of a good novel, and the texture of recognizable people in extraordinary circumstances." In his first film as writer-director (he was the co-author of The Empire Strikes Back and wrote the screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark), Kasdan has succeeded handsomely. There is intricacy...
There the story rested until Lucas, cooling out on a Hawaiian beach after launching Star Wars, began embroidering his tale for Spielberg, his friend. "I felt like I was eating a barrel of popcorn at a noon matinee," Spielberg recalls. Two years later they called in Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, who shared the screenplay credit on Empire, for a marathon "pitching" session. For five consecutive nine-hour days the three men shouted, argued, paced and acted out the story until its line was firm. "We are general practitioners," explains Spielberg. "The best work I do is when I'm locked...